(pic I took of the perito moreno glacier)
Well I survived.. I conquered the southern most tip of the inhabited world. The most difficult parts of the trip were the long bus rides (your mind turns against itself), missing my boyfriend and sharing a dorm with a bunch of rowdy youngins. On one particular night I heard a couple (who just met that day) consummate their drunken desperation in the bunk across from me. It was a 12 person dorm and being very late at night it was dead silent. Every sound was amplified, so the unzipping of their jeans sounded like chain saws. And of course the other people sharing the dorm were roused and tried to notify the assailants by tossing and turning loudly, to no avail. You see, I treasure my sleep, I do mind, and this aggression will not stand man. So I had to put the kibosh on the love affair but that's another story for another time.
Anyway, Patagonia was amazing. The scenery was jaw dropping and easily accessible. The first few days in Patagonia were spent in Puerto Madryn. Which is famously known for the gruesome videos of killer whales beaching themselves on land to feast on young, unsuspecting, baby seals. Of course I was all about seeing this in person so I took a trip to the Isle Verdes to get a first hand glimpse. Sadly, I only saw some sea lions laying around the beach bellowing at each other and a killer whale in the far off distance, no carnage. The next day I took a trip to Punto Tumbo which is home to hundreds of Penguins. Did you know that Penguins are in fact one of the most adorable creatures on the planet? They are.
My next destination was El Calafate which is a little town near the Perito Moreno Glacier. Glacier Moreno is one of the only glaciers in the world that is not retreating. It stood between two massive mountains and it seemed to go on forever. It reminded me of Superman's home. The day was hot and it was the end of summer so the whole glacier was creaking with movement and large parts of the glacier were falling into the ocean. When each chuck of ice fell it sounded like cannons going off and once the ice hit the water it created massive waves. It was awesome.
Next I took a bus to El Chalten, which was an even smaller town surrounded by the Andes mountains. I did a few day hikes... 8 hours in nature without a soul around you is pretty exhilarating but I always carried a very big stick. I could drink out of any body of water I found on the hike, lakes, streams, brooks, creeks. I went a little overboard with this and drank from anything that was wet but it was a novelty. I also saw rainbows (teared up), glaciers, birds, giant trees, meadows and much more.
After 3 days in El Chalten I took a horrendous bus ride to El Bolson. Let me tell you, horrendous bus rides will kill your soul but I won't get into that now.I arrived in the afternoon and it was like a culmination of every one of my travel fantasies. El Bolson is a tiny little hippie town located between two mountain ranges. The people were nice, the scenery was beautiful and my hostel had hammocks! Most of the time was spent relaxing, hiking and eating. Again, I met a lot of great people and was sad to leave after spending all most a week there!
After a hellacious 23 hour sleepless bus ride I arrived in Salta. I walked from the bus station to a hostel only to find it was booked, they guided me to another hostel but only to find that it was disgusting. So I got out my lonely planet, hailed a cab and stayed at one of the places the 'bible' recommended (so it makes me want to vomit in a mouth a little when I refer to the lonely planet as the bible, but it is, it really has saved my ass countless times). There I met a few other independent travel ladies and we ventured around the town together.
One day I took a local bus to a place called San Lorenzo and found a hiking path. Oh it was magnificent, I felt like I was in the movie Avatar. As soon as I was a few minutes on the path I saw a flock of wild parrots fly over a gorge between two mountains.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindseycochran/
